Utah Baseball Beats Utah Valley 9-3

Utah Baseball finally got to play at home after playing the first month of the season on the road. The Utes played host to the visiting Utah Valley Wolverines, and were hoping to ride the momentum of a comeback victory in Tucson over Arizona to win their last game, and second series in a row. Also they have won five of their last six games.

UVU was first to score as Kade Andrus had a RBI single in the third inning with two outs to put the Wolverines on top 1-0. The Utes would have none of that, as they came out in the fourth inning, and drove home five runs. With the bases loaded, Kody Davis drove home two runs on a base hit, and Jayson Rose, Hunter Simmons, and Wyler Smith all had RBI's to increase the lead to 5-1.

There was more of the same for he Utes in the fifth. AJ Young lead off the inning with a single up center field. Jayson Rose's hit to right was thrown to first, but a bad throw allowed Rose to advance to second and Young to home plate and another run for the Utes. Two more batters made it on after being hit by pitches, and Andre Jackson ran home after a wild pitch.

Up 7-1 both teams scored two runs in the eighth inning, including a two run home run by UVU's Andrus. That would become the final score at 9-3. Smith was three for five at bat which lead the Utes. Defensively the Utes were stellar especially on the mound. Dylan Drachler was the starting pitcher, pitched the first five innings getting seven strikeouts, and earning his first win of the season.

"Pitching was the better part of the game tonight," Utah head coach Bill Kinneberg said. "Drachler was really good in the starting role. It was his first start of the year, and he did a really nice job of throwing strikes and keeping them off balance. He got five innings in, and we were expecting three. Stouder was outstanding and Thomas came in and did a nice job too. We weren't as crisp offensively as I'd like to be, but we put up nine runs, and I'll take that any day."

The Utes will meet the Wolverines again on April 14 at Smith's Ballpark, and head down to Orem for game three on May 5. The Utes are off to Los Angeles this weekend to take on the Bruins in their next Pac 12 series starting Friday March 20.